This is an informal history of New Orleans jazz from the turn of the 20th century to the present day, as told by the musicians themselves in interviews conducted by the author.

From 1955-65 the historian Eric Hobsbawm took the pseudonym 'Francis Newton' and wrote a monthly column for the New Statesman on jazz - music he had loved ever since discovering it as a boy in 1933 ('the year Adolf Hitler took power in Germany'). Hobsbawm's column led to his writing a critical history, The Jazz Scene (1959). This enhanced edition from 1993 adds later writings by Hobsbawm in which he meditates further 'on why jazz is not only a marvellous noise but a central concern for anyone concerned with twentieth-century society and the twentieth-century arts.' 'All the greats are covered in passing (Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday), while further space is given to Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Thelonious Monk, Mahalia Jackson, and Sidney Bechet ... Perhaps Hobsbawm's tastiest comments are about the business side and work ethics, where his historian's eye strips the jazz scene down to its commercial spine.' Kirkus Reviews

Jazz and Totalitarianism examines jazz in a range of regimes that in significant ways may be described as totalitarian, historically covering the period from the Franco regime in Spain beginning in the 1930s to present day Iran and China. The book presents an overview of the two central terms and their development since their contemporaneous appearance in cultural and historiographical discourses in the early twentieth century, comprising fifteen essays written by specialists on particular regimes situated in a wide variety of time periods and places. Interdisciplinary in nature, this compelling work will appeal to students from Music and Jazz Studies to Political Science, Sociology, and Cultural Theory.

Finalist for the 2019 Jazz Journalists Association Book of the Year About Jazz, Jazz Awards for Journalism "Is there jazz in China?" This is the question that sent author Eugene Marlow on his quest to uncover the history of jazz in China. Marlow traces China's introduction to jazz in the early 1920s, its interruption by Chinese leadership under Mao in 1949, and its rejuvenation in the early 1980s with the start of China's opening to the world under Premier Deng Xiaoping. Covering a span of almost one hundred years, Marlow focuses on a variety of subjects--the musicians who initiated jazz performances in China, the means by which jazz was incorporated into Chinese culture, and the musicians and venues that now present jazz performances. Featuring unique, face-to-face interviews with leading indigenous jazz musicians in Beijing and Shanghai, plus interviews with club owners, promoters, expatriates, and even diplomats, Marlow marks the evolution of jazz in China as it parallels China's social, economic, and political evolution through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. Also featured is an interview with one of the extant members of the Jimmy King Big Band of the 1940s, one of the first major all-Chinese jazz big bands in Shanghai. Ultimately, Jazz in China: From Dance Hall Music to Individual Freedom of Expression is a cultural history that reveals the inexorable evolution of a democratic form of music in a Communist state.

Features interviews of Sam Wooding, Benny Waters, Joe Tarto, Bud Freeman, Jimmy McPartland, Freddie Moore, and Jabbo Smith, and Bix Beiderbecke's letters to his family.

Encounters with Jazz on Television in Cold War Era Portugal: 1954–1974 explores the relationship between jazz and television by investigating the experiences of performers and producers in one of the last European colonial states (Portugal) during a period of political and social repression and global isolation. This new model of systemic analysis reveals a paradoxical interrelationship between state-controlled television and international media industries, highlighting the space where these two forces collide and locating television jazz production within an important cultural milieu with a lasting impact on Portuguese society. From the days of the first feasibility studies for a proposed public television service in 1954, to the military coup that overthrew the far-right Estado Novo regime in 1974, this book maps the institutionalization of jazz in Portugal as a social and musical practice, one that played a significant role in fostering cultural diversity. It looks at the musicians, repertoires, production processes, broadcasts, policies and strategies that fuelled the launch of Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP) and the rise of television, an indispensable new medium that granted Portuguese people access to the wider world – a world curated by public television producers with individual cultural, political and aesthetic attitudes to influence the dissemination of jazz. In exploring the connections between these national and international jazz scenes, Encounters with Jazz on Television in Cold War Era Portugal: 1954–1974 addresses opportunities for in-depth comparison of the Portuguese experience with that of other countries, situating Cold War era Portuguese television jazz broadcasting as part of a bigger, still unwritten story.

Nat Hentoff, renowned jazz critic, civil liberties activist, and fearless contrarian—"I’m a Jewish atheist civil-libertarian pro-lifer"—has lived through much of jazz’s history and has known many of jazz’s most important figures, often as friend and confidant. Hentoff has been a tireless advocate for the neglected parts of jazz history, including forgotten sidemen and -women. This volume includes his best recent work—short essays, long interviews, and personal recollections. From Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong to Ornette Coleman and Quincy Jones, Hentoff brings the jazz greats to life and traces their art to gospel, blues, and many other forms of American music. At the Jazz Band Ball also includes Hentoff’s keen, cosmopolitan observations on a wide range of issues. The book shows how jazz and education are a vital partnership, how free expression is the essence of liberty, and how social justice issues like health care and strong civil rights and liberties keep all the arts—and all members of society—strong.

Based on interviews, conversations, and observations drawn from extensive field research, Jazz in Contemporary China: Shifting Sounds, Rising Scenes explores the current developments and conditions of Chinese jazz. Negotiating socio-political, cultural, and spatial phenomena, the author provides unique insights for understanding China’s modern history through its happenings in jazz, unveiling an insider’s look at the musicians and individuals who populate and propel these scenes. This first-hand perspective illuminates how jazz generates and disseminates practices of creativity and individuality in twenty-first-century China.

New Jazz Conceptions: History, Theory, Practice is an edited collection that captures the cutting edge of British jazz studies in the early twenty-first century, highlighting the developing methodologies and growing interdisciplinary nature of the field. In particular, the collection breaks down barriers previously maintained between jazz historians, theorists and practitioners with an emphasis on interrogating binaries of national/local and professional/amateur. Each of these essays questions popular narratives of jazz, casting fresh light on the cultural processes and economic circumstances which create the music. Subjects covered include Duke Ellington’s relationship with the BBC, the impact of social media on jazz, a new view of the ban on visiting jazz musicians in interwar Britain, a study of Dave Brubeck as a transitional figure in the pages of Melody Maker and BBC2’s Jazz 625, the issue of ‘liveness’ in Columbia’s Ellington at Newport album, a musician and promoter's views of the relationship with audiences, a reflection on Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis and Eric Hobsbawm as jazz critics, a musician’s perspective on the oral and generational tradition of jazz in a British context, and a meditation on Alan Lomax’s Mr. Jelly Roll, and what it tells us about cultural memory and historical narratives of jazz.

Musicians, teachers and those who love music will find in this volume some answers to the question of how gender affects its practice, performance and reception. What was performing like for female rock singers in the 20th century? How did Bowie change our concept of performer identity? Just how sexist are the lyrics in glam metal songs? Is rap as homophobic as has been thought? Can female metal singers growl as well as men? Are LGBTQ+ issues reflected in 21st century music? Did Canadian New Wave groups tackle major social issues? How do Shakespeare and Joyce use musical puns and allusions? From Indian thumri, through French opera, Irish folk songs, and pop, all the way to metal and rap, the 17 contributions gathered here will challenge and inform, while confirming that our music shapes our habits, language, ideas and gendered selves.